GameSoundCon 2015
Every November, there is an event in Los Angeles that brings together a wide array of industry professionals dedicated to the sound of video games. Music composers, sound designers, VO artists, audio producers, music editors and more will gather at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles for GameSoundCon. 
GameSoundCon is the only event dedicated completely to video game sound. GSC offers seminars, classes, workshops, and lectures that cover all aspects of game sound, and provide much needed time for networking. Both beginners and pros will find items of interest with plenty of learning opportunities available.
The 2015 roster of speakers will include: Chance Thomas, Jason Graves, Dale Crowley, Laura Karpman, Peter McConnell, and Penka Kouneva - all music composers, Becky Allen - Audio Director and Composer at PopCap/EA, Paul Lipson - Audio Director for Microsoft, Andrew Allen - Lead Audio Researcher at UCSD, John Rodd - John Rodd Mixing, Richard Ludlow - Creative Director for Hexany Audio, Kristen Quebe - Senior Sound Designer for Riot Games, Jacquie Shriver - Sony Computer Entertainment, and more. You can get a full list of sessions here.
This year we are exhibiting at the two day event. Having a booth onsite will give us a chance to interface with all the attendees and give them access to us directly. We will be there to explain what it is that Audio Perception does, and answer tech questions and consult with people in person. If you would like to attend, we are offering a code for $125 off the regular price admission. Just enter APERCEPGAME at checkout to get the discount applied. Hope to see you there.
On August 26th, The Society of Composers and Lyricists presented “WorkFlows of the Pros”, an educational seminar in Los Angeles at the American Film Institute’s Mark Goodson Theater. Hosting the event was SCL’s Joel Douek, who is a very talented and successful composer in his own right. The guest speaker for the panel was Trevor Morris. Trevor is an acclaimed, Emmy award winning film and television composer. His film credits include Olympus Has Fallen, Immortals, Scorpion King: Book of the Dead, The Marine 2, The Hills Have Eyes 2 and many, many more. He also composed for the television series The Tudors. In addition, the panel included both David Knauer and Jason Atkinson of Audio Perception. The seminar was webcast in realtime for SCL members, and was also recorded for members to view online afterward.
One of the primary topics was that of a “split system”, which consists of one computer system for composing and a separate computer system for recording the final output into stems for delivery to the final dub mix of the film or television show. Other topics included session prep for scoring stage recording dates and a general discussion of deeper, more advanced DAW concepts and integrating Vienna Ensemble Pro Server. The discussion was somewhat agnostic toward DAW applications, and was more generalized in theory and practice.
“Bluer than blue, sadder than sad, you’re the only life this empty room has ever had. Life without you is gonna be, bluer than blue.” Or how about “Yeah it’s sad to belong to someone else, when the right one comes along.” Just a sampling of lyrics from singer, songwriter Randy Goodrum. With a knack for crafting beautiful melodies and poignant lyrics, Randy has been writing great songs for decades. Diverse artists like Anne Murray, Michael Johnson, England Dan and John Ford Coley, Chaka Khan, Tammy Wynette, Patti Austin, Gladys Knight, Reba McEntire, Alabama, Judy Collins, Ray Charles, and many, many more have recorded his songs. Randy has also collaborated with artists and groups like 
Steve Perry, Toto and El DeBarge. In addition, Randy is an artist in his own right and releases his own work from time to time.
to continue using it with his new MacPro. A perfect solution since the Rosetta 800 was already well integrated into his studio environment and patch bays. We discussed data migration from his old Mac to the new MacPro using the Apple Migration Assistant, as well as best data backup practices and Thunderbolt connections and daisy-chaining. In addition, we also discussed options for the continued use of the four drives currently residing in his old aluminum MacPro.
Yes, I want to eat!,” is what the cute little dog says with a New York accent, as he’s jumping up and down awaiting a delicious meal of Purina Beneful Chopped Blends in a national television commercial. 
Accompanying the visuals is an instrumental track composed and recorded by Audio Perception’s Jason Atkinson. Licensed through the Alibi Music Library, “Hunny Bunny” is a bouncy, piano driven instrumental that fits perfectly with the energy of the commercial. 
The music plays through the entirety of the 30-second advertisement. “It’s always exciting hearing music I’ve written show up in a commercial like this,” says Jason, who continues to compose more tracks for Alibi Music as well as other music libraries. 
Bassist, rockstar, and all around cool guy. That’s Jack Casady. Jack is considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era, best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. He started in Jefferson Airplane in 1965 and was with the band till they broke up in 1972. During that time, he played on all seven of their studio albums, including the singles "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." Casady and former Airplane guitarist, Peter Kaukonen, formed Hot Tuna in 1969, and they still perform to the present day. The group has morphed over the years from an acoustic blues group, to an electric boogie band, to a rampaging metal act and back again. Casady's appetite for playing also led him to do extensive moonlighting during his Airplane tenure. Not only did he perform live on stage with Jimi Hendrix in 1968, he also played bass on the Jimi Hendrix song "Voodoo Child," from Electric Ladyland. He occasionally played with other key San Francisco bands like Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish. Casady, along with the other members of Jefferson Airplane, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
It was time for Jack to upgrade his home studio, but he had a problem. He was planning to remove his obsolete Digidesign Control 24 and replace it with a shiny new Avid S6 M10 console. The desk he has is an older KK audio desk that was custom fit for the Control 24 and the opening was too narrow for the new Avid M10. Since the desk was designed to fit a Control 24, it had the big open area in the rear of the desk with a wood speaker bridge all the way across the top. The easy solution would have been to get a new desk to fit the Avid S6 perfectly. Here is where the problem comes in. 
GISHWHES, which stands for the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, is a 5-time Guinness World Records breaking scavenger hunt hosted by Misha Collins that you can compete in from anywhere in the world. Thousands of participants from more than 100 countries build their own teams and, for one week, they acquire items on a fun, inspiring and sometimes jaw-dropping scavenger hunt list. The items are “captured” as videos or images and uploaded to the GISHWHES website to memorialize the annual experience and to supply the judges with something to judge. The more sublime and creative a submission is, the more points awarded. Items range from the sweet and touching (perform a sock puppet show at a children’s hospital), to the weirdly sublime (a fully dressed storm trooper cleaning a pool next to a sunbather), to the absolutely impossible (get the word “gishwhes” written on something in space), a team actually pulled that off! "We try to create a list that is challenging, thrilling, and absurd. We like to see items that make us tear-up and laugh out loud. We like to have participants break out of their comfort zones, re-awaken their inner artist, and do a bit of good in the world." The team that scavenges the most items, with the highest quality of submissions, joins Misha Collins on an all-expenses paid trip to an exotic locale. Prior winners journeyed to Rome, a haunted castle in Scotland, an island off the coast of British Columbia, and a pirate ship in Croatia. This year the winning team will be joining Misha and his favorite spider monkey in Costa Rica.
Misha Collins is best known for his role as the Angel Castiel on the CW television series Supernatural. In addition, Misha has been seen on Nip/Tuck, CSI: NY, Without a Trace, Monk, NCIS and ER. With all his TV experience, Misha is no stranger to the voice-over mic. That’s a good thing since he had two days’ worth of dialogue to record for this year’s GISHWHES hunt. Along with all the scavenging fun, Misha has added another dimension to this year’s hunt. Through a phone-based voice tree that contestants navigate, they must choose an answer (the leaves) to the questions (the branches) posed throughout the hunt. For each "branch" (a question, statement or problem) there would typically be three to five "leaves" (the answers). You are then directed to a new branch depending on which leaf you choose. All of the branches and their numerous leaves had to be recorded, edited, labeled and output in a final form for the phone system. With hundreds of audio files, we had to be very careful and organized in our file management and naming. With the many hours of final edited and output audio completed and loaded up, the phone tree will be a great, new challenging and intriguing addition to the hunt.
And now for something a bit different.... Audio Perception is known for their work in the audio realm, but what about the fitness world? Vie 2 Cycling's owner Chuck Schwartz set out to design the best sounding spinning studio in Los Angeles. After spending countless days working out in gyms with bad sound systems, Chuck decided to open his own spinning gym, and was inspired to create a fitness space with the best sound,
Brain Chase is a five-week online summer learning challenge for 2nd–8th graders that unfolds as a treasure hunt worthy of any detective. Based on a series of animated shorts, the educational challenge will culminate in a $10,000 cash prize! Kids complete an hour of daily learning activities through their curriculum partners to unlock animated episodes of an original adventure story. The episodes contain clues to the hidden resting place of a mysterious golden mechanism buried somewhere in the world, inside is a key to a safety deposit box holding a $10,000 cash prize. 
Be the first to pinpoint the treasure’s location, and you’ll soon be boarding a flight to that destination where you’ll dig it up for yourself!
Film and television composer James Covell upgraded his composing studio to a new MacPro and the brand new AVB audio hardware from MOTU. James is a graduate of the renowned USC Thornton Scoring for Motion Picture and Television program and has been composing for well over 35 years. With credits including Left Behind: 
The Movie, Last Shot with Judge Gunn, Santa with Muscles, The List, A Dennis the Menace Christmas and many more, James has had a busy career so far.
MOTU AVB Switch for networking up to five interfaces.
Jurassic World, Minions, Inside Out, Amazing Spider-Man, Skyfall, Cars 2 and Super 8 - just a sampling of an impressive list of orchestration work from Boyer. Peter, who came to Audio Perception through our association with the Society of Composers and Lyricists, is a very successful orchestral composer with a long catalog of works. He’s also been in demand for orchestration work with some of Hollywood’s biggest composers, including Michael Giacchino, Thomas Newman, James Horner, Mark Isham and Harry Greyson-Williams, to name a few. A talented composer in his own right, Peter’s major work, Ellis Island: The Dream Of America, has had over 150 live performances since 2002. His most successful composition to date, Ellis Island combines orchestra and actors to celebrate the experience of American immigrants.
Everyone knows Scott Weiland as the singer from Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, but now he is also known as the owner of Lavish Studios in Burbank, CA. Lavish Studios got started in 1997 as Scott’s private studio, and it has remained that way up until 2014 when Scott decided to do a major equipment upgrade and open Lavish to the public as a commercial recording facility. 
With the start of the new year comes the 2015 Winter NAMM Show. It’s the time of year when many attendees bask in the mild Southern California winter season after leaving behind freezing temps back home. We look forward to running into old friends and making new ones. There are so many people in attendance - you never know who you’ll run into. 
Tucked away in West Hills, California, Tab Sound Design is owned and operated by William Tabanou. Catering to a wide variety of film and music clientele, Tab Sound Design is a full-service professional audio post production facility. Audio post clients include Sony Pictures, History Channel, Lakeshore Entertainment, O Entertainment, and many more. Music clients have included Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch, Silversun Pickups, The Smithereens, and Coolio. In addition to running the studio, William is also a sound designer, mixer, music producer and musician.
After accumulating an incredible collection of vintage gear, the kind of gear electronic music creators drool over, Ryan Hope was ready to get it all wired up, integrated and operational in a cool, creative space. Ryan, who is British born, recently relocated to Los Angeles. He’s been an in demand video and film director for many years in the U.K., working on video projects for clients such as Absolut, Pharrell Williams, George Michael, Beats By Dre, Guinness and Hugo Boss, to name a few. He recently directed the Sam Smith music video for Lay Me Down. With his directorial career firmly planted and growing, Ryan wanted to pursue another of his creative passions - electronic music composition.
At Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, Audio Perception has been providing support for the TV production department since 2002. We keep all of the Apple iMac based Final Cut Pro student lab stations running in the NDTV classrooms and handle tech support for the instructor, Elisia Harkins. We also provide support for their three camera digital video stage and the mobile system used to shoot live sports and events around the school. Lastly, we handle the computer clean up and prep before the start of each new school year. This year, a kind NDHS alumnus generously donated a complete NewTek TriCaster broadcast system to the NDTV class. 
The TriCaster is a very advanced and professional A/V broadcast solution that will provide the NDHS (do you mean NDHS, right??) students with real-world broadcast experience and deliver excellent quality video for streaming and archival use. The TriCaster will be configured as a portable rig to be used for recording all home games for all sports programs and all special events at the school, including the graduation ceremonies. All games and events will be broadcast in real-time over the internet and, afterwards, all footage will be available on the school website, as well as on all social media that NDHS utilizes. Audio Perception’s video specialist, Brett Collins, was brought in for the TriCaster integration and basic training. The system was setup on a portable AV cart that students can easily transport around the campus as needed.
This past November 6-9th, Audio Perception attended the 2014 Taxi Road Rally at The Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel. We had a great time last year at the 2013 event and we met a lot of talented attendees. This year we were looking forward to our second turn as a Road Rally exhibitor. Once again, scattered throughout the hotel are many, many meeting rooms where a long list of Driver’s Ed classes are held. Driver’s Ed classes, which are classes that target a specific topic relevant to the art and business of writing and selling songs, are one of many benefits of attending a Taxi Road Rally. Driver’s Ed teachers include Ronan Chris Murphy, Steven Memel, Mike Greene, Michael Lloyd, Jan Linder-Koda, Jai Josefs, Gilli Moon, Fett, Michael Lloyd, Hans Dekline, Clare McLeod, Ralph Murphy and more. Topics included music licensing, production tracks and music libraries, songwriting, building websites, singing, marketing, music production and mixing, networking, technology, software, mastering, and much more. The 2014 Taxi Lifetime Achievement Award honoree was Maureen Crowe. Maureen has had a long and successful career in music supervision. She co-founded the Guild of Music Supervisors. 
Michael Laskow sat down with Maureen for the Keynote interview, where she shared her wisdom and many years of experience in music supervising with a packed room.
It’s October again in the City of Angels and we’ve survived the long dog days of summer. With fall comes cooler weather and the 2014 Audio Engineering Society Convention. We at Audio Perception have been looking forward to both. It’s been 12 years since L.A. last hosted the AES Show, which was held at the Downtown L.A. Convention Center, Oct. 9th through the 12th. The AES show is four days of manufacturers and developers meeting under one big roof to discuss and debate the current and future status of the audio industry and to show off new gear. There were many notable events and highlights of the 2014 AES show. One such highlight was legendary producer and engineer Alan Parsons’ keynote address during the Opening Ceremonies, discussing the future of High Resolution Audio (should that be capitalized??). Another highlight was AES Raw Tracks, featuring discussions about legendary artists and songs with the engineers involved, including Fleetwood Mac Rumours (Ken Caillat - engineer), David Bowie (Ken Scott - engineer), Beach Boys Pet Sounds (Mark Linett - engineer), and The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Andrew Scheps - engineer). And yet another highlight, Chicks in the Mix, was an all-female panel discussing the female experience in the music business, moderated by Chris Lord-Alge and featuring Lisa Loeb (singer/songwriter), Amy Burr (Larrabee Studios Manager), Emily Lazar (singer for September Mourning), 
The XL-Desk is a 24 x 8 analog mixer with up to 40 inputs of analog summing and 18 slots of 500 series expandability, at a more affordable price point. There were many more product introductions, too numerous to mention here. You can find out more at the AES website.
Koshi Inaba and Tak Matsumoto, better known as the “B’z”, are the biggest pop/rock act in Japan and all of Asia. Formed in 1988, the B’z have released 17 albums and had 50 singles over the past 26 years. Based in Japan, they also have a private recording facility in Los Angeles, outfitted with a Pro Tools HD3 rig. The B’s American drummer, Shane Gaalaas, contacted Audio Perception about upgrading the studio Avid Pro Tools HD rig to HDX, and Pro Tools 11/10 HD. They opted to crossgrade their HD3 and 2 x 192 Interfaces to an HDX2 and 2 x HD I/O 16x16 interfaces. The upgrade went smoothy, the B’z are thrilled with the new hardware and software, and Koshi, Tak and Shane have been busy tracking for their next album release.
After completing the hugely successful Quadrophenia 2012/13 tour, Musical Director for The Who, Frank Simes, is knee deep in prepping for their 50th Anniversary Tour. This time the sheer number of potential tracks is quite ambitious, as they’ll have much deeper album cuts to pull out of the hat. For the 50th Anniversary Tour, Frank had to chart out dozens of hits and deep album cuts from the extensive catalog The Who has produced over the past many decades. He called on Jason Atkinson and Audio Perception to help prep album tracks in Digital Performer for the upcoming rehearsals. This way, Pete, and or Roger will not need to be present for much of the rehearsing, as they can reference the album tracks of Pete’s guitar and vocals, and Roger’s vocals. Frank also needed help building up a Kontakt based sample library of various horn parts from album multitrack sessions, as well as assorted sounds for other songs. So Jason and Frank have been working over the past several weeks building the Kontakt samples libraries and working on prep for the upcoming rehearsals. Tour dates for the U.K. and Ireland have been announced, with U.S. tour dates to follow. In a June 30th Rolling Stone magazine interview with Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, it was revealed that this will be somewhat of a ‘thank you’ and ‘farewell’ tour. Not so much from making new music, but from the grind of major touring. If you are a fan of The Who, don’t miss this one, it might be the last!
In the land of the Saguaro cactus and golden-red sunsets, hundreds of audio recording enthusiasts descended upon The Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, AZ. for the 2014 Pot Luck Audio Conference. The 
The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences recently began building two new rooms based around the Solid State Logic AWS series analog recording consoles. The two rooms, one built in the Mesa, AZ facility, and the other built in the Gilbert, AZ satellite location we’re both in need of an elegant, functional and ergonomic furniture solution for the AWS consoles. Currently there are only a few furniture solutions for the AWS consoles, and none of them were ideal for the new CRAS studios.
Songwriter, guitarist, producer and founding member of the band Tonic, Jeff Russo has had a very successful music
Ho ho ho, and Happy Holidays!! At least that’s what Audio Perception’s Jason Atkinson has been humming lately. Jason recently arranged and recorded a selection of public domain Christmas songs for the Alibi Music Library. Selctions including Jingle Bells, Joy to the World, Deck The Halls, Silent Night, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Treatments included Light Acoustic, Acoustic, and Jazz. You can listen to any of the tracks here: 
Also recently completed by Jason Atkinson were twelve tracks for a new Light Acoustic album featured at the Alibi Music Library. These tracks were written to be sonically minimal, with light instrumentation, leaving plenty of room for commercial voice over and actor dialog. The tracks included a lot of real instruments played and recorded by Jason, including acoustic guitar, ukulele, mandolin, toy piano, and various percussion instruments. The twelve tracks were meticulously mixed and readied for delivery by Audio Perception’s David Knauer. You can listen to tracks from the Light Acoustic album here: 
Since it’s launch in 2011 by Jonathan Parks, Alibi Music Library has been continually growing it business and music content. From the beginning, Audio Perception’s David Knauer has been mastering every track written for Alibi Music. Earlier in 2014, a new round of tracks started arriving for mastering, this time leading up to the launch of the new Alibi Music U.K. office. There were quite a few new tracks for mastering, which required a busy schedule between David Knauer handling all the mastering, and AP’s Craig Martin handling all content ingestion and prep, as well as final output of mastered tracks. The mastering process is crucial to achieving as much sonic consistency as possible between and among the various tracks and composers involved in the Alibi Music Library.
With offices in Los Angeles, New York and Paris, the creative team at Human World Wide is busy composing original music and sound design for advertising, television, film and interactive media. Human’s impressive list of clients include Apple, Sony, Nike, Coke Cola, Adidas, Google, Delta Airlines, Sony, Audi, Microsoft Xbox, and many more.
This month, The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Phoenix Arizona (CRAS) is putting the finishing touches on studios number 11 and 12. CRAS has accomplished an innovative design for its two separate campuses, the original in Tempe, Arizona, and the newer Gilbert campus, six miles away. The studios at the two campuses have the equipment mirrored between them. 
There are duplicate consoles consisting of two SSL 4000 Series, two API Legacy Plus consoles, two Neotek Elite consoles, two Digidesign C|24 Control Surface, and one Studer Vista 9 Digital Mixing Console in their broadcast studio, with a Studer Vista 5 Digital Mixing Console in their new mobile truck. Studios number 11 and 12 have been built at the Tempe campus to house new dual SSL AWS 948 consoles. CRAS alumni, Alex Otto, designed the rooms and is now deep into building them.
Musician and songwriter, Garry Beers, has had a long and successful career. As bass player and contributing songwriter in the group INXS, Garry has toured the world over, and saturated radio and TV with catchy songs he’s penned like ‘Don’t Change’, ‘Listen Like Thieves’, ‘Just Keep Walking” and ‘The Swing’. Over the years, Garry has been busy writing songs and music for film and television. Garry’s music career goes back to 1975, when he joined his first band, Legolas Elvin Warrior. In that band he played the acoustic guitar. After studying guitar for nine months, he saw little Improvement. This then led him to try out the bass guitar, and the rest is history. In 1979, INXS was born.
Thunder doesn’t only happen when it’s raining! Just ask Art Wright, owner of Thunder Music & Sound Design, an audio post production studio now located in the Blackwelder complex in the Culver City Arts District. Art was planning to move Thunder into the Jump LA Editorial building and needed a complete room buildout with a spacious control room and a large, comfortable isolation booth. 
With a growing client list spanning from the mid-1980s to today, Brian Malouf has had a long and successful career in the music business. Brian’s audio engineering clientele include The Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Starship, Al Jarreau, Pete Townsend, Julian Lennon, Seal, Celine Dion, Pearl Jam, Lisa Loeb, Pink, Pharrell Williams, Queen, Everclear and many more. From 1994 to 2005, Brian was Vice-President, A&R, for RCA Records in New York. In addition, Brian is an accomplished musician, having played drums in various bands, and served as the first-chair symphonic percussionist at Cal State Northridge while attending college there.
Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, Steve Angello is one of the hottest DJs touring throughout the world. Steve’s style, a mixture of house music infused with an epic, almost orchestral intensity, has been bringing stadium crowds to their feet, on sold out show after sold out show. In addition to his DJ’ing success, Steve is also owner and founder of Size Records. Established in 2003, Size Records has an impressive roster of artists and releases in the EDM/DJ genre.
From January 23rd through the 26th, almost 100,000 attendees will descend upon the Anaheim Convention Center in sunny Southern California to attend the annual NAMM Show. With over 1,000,000 square feet of space, you’ll find an immense assortment of musical instruments and audio equipment from thousands of manufacturers, as well as countless rooms for lectures, demonstrations, concerts and meetings. You’ll often hear attendees from the east coast talk about the cold weather they left behind while basking in the warmth of SoCal winters.
What do Guns N’ Roses, Y Can’t Tori Read, The Cult and Velvet Revolver have in common? The very talented Matt Sorum! An excellent drummer and percussionist, Matt has had a long career in the music industry. Matt’s newest project is 
Matt also has a private recording studio called Drac Studios. A wide variety of artists and musicians have recorded there, including Velvet Revolver, Manhattan Transfer, Macy Gray, Dave Navarro, Billy Idol and many more. The center piece of the studio is a vintage Trident 80C analog mixing console. In addition to the vintage console, the studio boasts a nice selection of outboard gear including Telefunken mics, Gretsch drums, Zildjian cymbals, and many guitar amps from Marshall, Fender, Ampeg, Vox, Orange, Gibson, Silvertone and Magnatone. Matt also runs Pro Tools HD and had been using a Mac G5 for many years. While a lot of great music was recorded on the old computer, the studio was in real need of more CPU speed, so he called Audio Perception looking for assistance. AP setup Matt with a MacPro, Digidesign HD3 and Pro Tools 10 HD. We got the new computer up and running and integrated into the studio, and now Matt and his engineer, Alex Torodov, are thrilled with the speed and power of the new setup.
Several months back, while we were manning our exhibitor table at the 2013 Taxi Road Rally event, we had the pleasure of meeting Steven Memel. Steven was a guest speaker at the event. He is based in Los Angeles, and is a well known voice and performance coach with a long list of successful clientele. Steven has coached singers like Adam Levine and Sara Bareilles, as well as speech coaching for Justin Long, Drew Barrymore, and Isabella Rossellini, to name a few. Since our table was parked right outside an exit from the Great Ballroom, we struck up a conversation with Steven. He mentioned that he might be in need of some assistance with his vocal teaching studio. He had some remodeling done to his home and studio, and just needed some help getting things set up again.
With hits for artists like Monica (Before You Walk out of My Life), Toni Braxton (I Love Me Some Him), 2Pac (Do For Love), Craig David with Sting (Rise & Fall), Fantasia (Truth Is), and many more, Carsten Schack, aka Soulshock of Soulpower Productions, is a very busy and in-demand songwriter and record producer. Hailing from Denmark, Soulshock moved to the United States in 1993 to further his music career.
If you’re a fan of the television series Veronica Mars, you’ll soon have your VM fix satiated with the upcoming feature film. The whole cast is back, as well as music composer, Josh Kramon. He had begun work on the feature film score in a temporary studio location, while his home and studio were being completely remodeled. Right in the middle of the VM score at his temporary studio location, it was time to move Josh back into his newly remodeled home, and into his brand new studio above the garage.
Next we went to work on wiring, which included custom mic/headphone wall panels, and a custom cable conduit that AP’s Craig Martin built into the ceiling of the garage, so that cables could be cleanly run between the machine room, control room, and booth. Holes had to be drilled through the floor down into the garage where the conduit resides. There are always design challenges that must be overcome in these situations. With this solution implemented and working, we got busy running all the necessary cabling.
Since opening up June of 2012, the Los Angeles Vintage King (VKLA) location has been providing a unique, boutique shopping experience to a wide array of music professionals. By appointment only, VKLA offers up an incredible assortment of high-end audio gear that you can come in and try out with the assistance of one of their very knowledgeable salesmen. To provide that service, the folks at VKLA spent a considerable amount of time setting up themed, flexible demo stations. Audio Perception was brought in to assist with various demo stations, including the Summing Demo Station. The Summing Demo consisted of an iMac, running Avid’s Pro Tools software, along with an Antelope Orion 32 audio interface, which was used to send groupings of 8 analog outputs to various analog summing devices. The brainchild of VKLA West Coast Sales Manager, Jeffrey Ehrenberg, the Summing Demo solution would be an efficient and elegant way to compare summing between various solutions. While the experienced sales staff at VKLA is capable of wiring up the Summing Demo Station, their time is better spent selling, so AP was hired to take care of it. The Summing Demo setup consists of three patch bays, and utilizes half-normals and 32 TT patch cables to continually send four banks of 8 audio channels to 8 summing devices. The half-normals and the 32 TT patch cables provided the split necessary to get 32 outputs into 64 inputs. Then the stereo summed outputs from all of the summing devices were normalled, via the patch bay, into a Coleman MS8A switcher (8 switchable stereo source inputs, 1 stereo out with volume). This setup allows you to play the same eight channels of test audio out of the four analog banks on the Orion 32, which automatically get sent to eight summing devices, and finally you can quickly and easily compare the resulting summing quality with the push of a button on the Colman switcher. There are four additional summing boxes (12 total), but up to eight can be fed 8 channels simultaneously. The summing devices include: SSL X-Desk, Neve 8816, Shadow Hills Equinox, Dangerous D-Box, Tube-Tech SSA-2B, Great River MixMaster 20, Burl B32, Analogue ToneBuss, Inward Connections Mix 690, Rupert Neve 059 Satellite, Phoenix Audio Nicerizer, and the Folcrom RMS216.
"Let's get it started in here!", exclaims will.i.am, in the 2005 Grammy winning song. Just one of many hits from the very talented wrapper, singer, songwriter, musician, producer and engineer William James Adams, aka will.i.am. Having locked out a room at the Record Plant for awhile now, will.i.am wanted his own creative space. When the old Technicolor building in Hollywood came up for lease, will.i.am thought it would be the perfect building and location. What was envisioned there was a one-stop shop for songwriting, music production, mixing, video production, and a green screen sound stage. It's a multimedia laboratory for collaborative creative endeavors. When construction is completed on the facility, there will be a total of three recording studios. A custom designed production studio for will.i.am, a traditional tracking and mixing studio, and a smaller writing studio for guest writer-producers. A large live room will be shared by will.i.am's studio and the guest writing studio. The studios and live rooms were designed by Vincent Amaury Van Haaff. Audio Perception will be planning and wiring all the studios, but it will take some time for construction to be completed. In the meantime will.i.am wanted a temporary setup to work with in the guest writing studio. For the temp studio, Audio Perception setup a new Apple MacPro, Avid Pro Tools HDX with an Avid I/O, a quiet rack for the computer and Avid interface, a few mic preamps, and a pre-release Slate Digital Raven control surface/display. With the temp room up and running for will.i.am, Audio Perception will soon be planning wiring for all three rooms. Later this year, will.i.am's creative vision will become reality. Runnin', running', keep runnin', runnin!!
A new Hilton promotional radio campaign licensed the Alibi Music Library track "Spool Table", written by Audio Perception. Several radio spots were cut, and broadcast in several major markets, including Los Angeles. Jason Atkinson, one of the composers at Audio Perception, describes hearing the Hilton radio spot while driving around Los Angeles:
It was an exciting three days in Hollywood, California when over 2000 hopeful music artists from all over the world, converged at the ASCAP "I Crate Music" Expo. On April 18th though the 20th, the enthusiastic attendees spent their days immersed in informative industry panels, live performances, and song critique sessions, as well as a wide variety of exhibitions. Ranging in topics from creative to business, this event was all about making it as an independent artist, educating attendees on how to take control of their 
Sonny John Moore, the multi-talented musician, composer, producer and songwriter also known as Skrillex, recently had a new studio built in his Downtown LA loft. Prior to the huge success Skrillex has enjoyed, Sonny was lead singer in the band "From First to Last", which formed in 2004. They had two very successful releases with Epitaph Records, and toured extensively. In 2007, Sonny officially left the band after suffering with serious vocal chord problems, which required surgery, 
and thus his solo career began. For the new studio, Skrillex purchased an SSL Matrix mixing console/DAW controller, an Antelope Orion 32 audio interface and various outboard gear, patch bays and wiring. A custom desk was built for the studio, as well as custom acoustic treatments. Audio Perception was brought in for wiring and gear integration. Armed with three DB-25, 96 point TT patch bays and a several boxes filled with a variety of off-the-shelf DB-25 snakes, we proceeded to get the entire room wired up according to the patch bay plans provided by Vintage King. Getting the room wired up, tested and fully functional took several days to complete. With the new room up and running, Skrillex now has his perfect personal creative space. We'll be hearing much more cool music from Sonny, a.k.a., Skrillex.
It's 2000 miles from Nashville to L.A. That sounds like a title for a country song, but that's how far songwriting team Robert Haas and Kristin Massey recently moved. Robert wanted to close down his Nashville studio and setup shop here in Los Angeles, so they relocated from Nashville after many years away. The duo's music career got off to a big start in the late eighties with their band Red Siren, and their 1989 hit song "All Is Forgiven". Today they continue to write and produce music for themselves and other artists. Just as Robert was leaving Nashville, he decided to purchase a new SSL AWS-924 analog mixing console. Audio Perception was asked to design, setup, and integrate the new room in L.A. with two 96 point patch bays and new custom wiring for all his outboard gear and the console. We also installed Primeacoustic panels in the room for proper sound control, along with a pair of Sound Anchor 
speaker stands that make a noticeable difference in the punch and focus of the low end response. Just off the bedroom there is a bathroom that doubles as a vocal booth. AP pulled the necessary wiring, and made a custom snake box for mic, line and headphones, as well as installing Primacoustic Scatter Blocks to finnish off the "Vocal Booth". The area we transformed into Robert's writing and mixing room was fairly small, but with careful planning and Primacoustic room treatments, it's turned into a great sounding and very functional creative space. Robert is thrilled with the new setup and he and Kristin have been busy working on new material.
Our work with Post Modern Creative continues. Over the past few years, Audio Perception has planned and implemented major upgrades for PMG's Pro Tools HD based audio production room in two phases. As their volume of business has steadily increased, the time has come for phase three. For Post Modern Creative to keep up with the audio production work load, they needed to build a complete new second room from scratch to mirror their main room that we built last year. To accomplish this, we had to plan and acquire the necessary hardware and software to match the two rooms. PMG went with two new matching Mac Pro computers, one for the new Studio B, the other to replace the current Mac Pro in Studio A. Their current Pro Tools system is an HD Accel based rig, so we had to track down used HD cards and matching 192 interfaces. Plugins also had to be matched between systems, and a Telos ISDN unit was installed. We also had Audio Perception's custom wiring department create various DB25 analog and digital audio snakes to connect the I/O to the machine room. They already had Mackie monitors in Studio A, so to keep consistent between the rooms, we added a complete set of five Mackie monitors and a JBL sub to Studio B. We also setup both rooms with Studio Technologies Studio Comm Model 74/75 5.1 surround monitor controllers. Once Studio B was up and running, and the upgrades to Studio A were complete, we finally had both rooms properly tuned by Jerry Stecking of JSX Audio. Post Modern Creative is now up and running with two mirrored studios, ready to tackle their growing audio production workload.
Where else can you and 95,000 other music enthusiasts and professionals all meet in a cozy 518,000 square feet? Why, none other than the 2013 NAMM Show! The 2013 event was bristling with activity. Featuring musical instruments from all over the world to be seen and played, incredible celebrity performances filling the daily calendar, and everything from suit and tie wearing piano manufacturers to spiky, purple haired punk rock guitar salesmen, the show is always an experience. Audio Perception was there all four days, keeping up to date with new equipment and software, visiting with old friends and contacts, and making new ones. Radial Engineering, one of the brands we carry, had some great new products at the show. Radial showed its new Voco-Loco
, a microphone preamp in a floor box that lets you add guitar effects pedals to a live vocal performance. The effects loop can be bypassed via a foot switch. The Cherry Picker preamp selector is another new product from Radial. It is a one input to four output switch, offering audio engineers the ability to quickly patch a single microphone through to one of four selectable mic preamp destinations. Also new from Radial is the Cherry Picker's sibling, the Gold Digger.
A four input by one output box that allows you to quickly select which of the four outputs that the single input will feed. Radial always provides a great array of Swiss-army-knife audio products. 
Another manufacturer we carry, Primacoustic, announced that their long awaited paintable sound panels are ready to begin shipping. This technology allows for creative and artful color coordination of panels to the look and color of the install location. All in all, 2013 was another incredible NAMM show.
For over six years, AP has been mastering music for TV and film music libraries. Tom Kenny, the Editor of Mix Magazine, asked APs David Knauer to write an article for this month's "Mastering" issue. For the article, we decided to use our most current and challenging project, mastering the entire Alibi Music Library to showcase how we work. The four page article discusses the entire process from importing the files all the way through to delivering the final masters back to the client. It also covers our setup and equipment used, as well as the plugins we used, and the processes we created to handle thousands of songs. The songs come in from many different composers all created and mixed under different circumstances. This creates a very challenging environment to work in and the article explains how we accomplished the task and achieved the end goal which was to provide a consistent tone and audio level throughout the entire library. The library covers a vast array of music and includes many genres and styles of songs. Check out the December issue of Mix for the entire story, and listen to our work at our mastering page "
This year we have done a lot of updates for our clients. Pro Tools HD to HDX trade upgrades have been popular, as well as many people growing into a newer Mac Pro or DAW software. Each time we do an upgrade for a client, we end up with a surplus of gear that is older but still in great condition. With all this great used stuff available, we decided to start a new consignment program for our clients. AP will now take in your used equipment and list it in our online store, as well as our eBay store and other outlets. That way you can sell your stuff fast and never have to see the buyer or deal with Craigslist ads. It's never been easier to part with your old gear and get some quick cash. Coming next month, we will launch a system in our store that will let you login and see our entire used inventory in a searchable database so you can find what you are looking for. You can also email or call us anytime to see what we have in stock. 
Most of you know that for the last year and a half we have been involved with a massive mastering project covering thousands of songs for the Alibi Music Library. What you may not know is that we have also composed over 65 songs that are currently 
Win a FREE studio sound-control bundle worth $750.00. Audio Perception is working with 
We have be working closely with NDHS for over ten years now, providing tech services, products, and consulting for their TV Production course. Headed up by Notre Dame's Elisia Harkins, the school has a three year course, TV Production I, II, and III, available for students to take. This year we provided and installed five 24" iMacs running Apple's Final Cut Pro and a whole new updated video control room. We started with a custom made floor box in the stage area where they shoot. It has four SDI video inputs, as well as inputs for mics and hookups for the headphone and tally light systems. This all feeds into the control room where AP installed a brand new DATA Video HD video switcher and communication system, along with a mac tower with an Aja Kona card to record the SDI digital output of the video switcher live. Working closely with the NDHS staff, AP continues to provide an ever-growing, and now digital, production environment for the students to learn in.
Last September Audio Perception was asked to help out New York Artist Samuel Bayer with a live art viewing he was doing in Los Angeles. (Read more 
Want to win a FREE studio bundle worth up to $1200? Audio Perception is working with 
Since launching late last year, the new 
team has been busy working on the next set of 1000 songs ready for a summer update. At our studio, we have been depending heavily on the Slate Digital FGX mastering software to give Alibi its incredibly full sound.
Busy musician and music director Frank Simes, who's worked with such legends as Mick Jagger, Don Henley, and Stevie Nicks, recently finished a stint with Roger Daltry of The Who, taking "Tommy" on the road. Now he's readying a tour of Quadrophenia with Roger and Pete Townsend. A large part of Frank's work with the tour is arranging instrument and vocal parts for the band, planning and recording any backing tracks for the show, and making sure that everything is running without a hitch. For backing track playback on the tour, AP's Jason Atkinson setup Frank's MacBookPro with MOTU's Digital Performer, several sound libraries, Apogee hardware and various plugins. The portable rig was also setup for any composing Frank might need to do while on tour with Roger. In addition, each concert date was recorded into a Pro Tools rig. Having used Pro Tools in the past, Frank is mainly a long time Digital Performer user, but also needed to start using Pro Tools again to do mixes of the shows. Jason was called in again to provide one of Audio Perception's most sought after services, personal instruction. Frank is now back up to speed on the Avid DAW platform and Quadrophenia is well on its way to hitting the road.
AP's tech department went to work on Matt Sorum's personal studio, giving his equipment racks a much needed face-lift. Matt had just brought in a bunch of new gear such as mic preamps from 
Audio Perception will be attending the 2011 AES show in New York City. We will be there Thursday, Friday and Saturday and are planning to firm up a few new equipment and software lines to add to our growing list of products. We offer many lines like 
We ended the summer with something a little different for Audio Perception. David Kemp, the art director for New York City-based artist, Samuel Bayer, contacted us to help him out with a special viewing they were setting up in Hollywood. They built a large art piece to showcase a movie trailer they created for a feature film that B Pictures will be releasing next year. The large "Cocoon" will house three large LCD TVs and four speaker systems that will allow visitors to pass through the length of the exhibit while viewing and hearing the trailer along the way. David contacted AP to help design and install the LCDs and speakers. This was an extra challenge because not only did the A/V system have to be high quality, but it also had to look good as the equipment would become part of the exhibit. AP counted on the live sound and A/V experience of our tech, Craig Martin, to not only design the system, but to install it as well. Check out some photo's 
This month Audio Perception joins the millions of follows worldwide and started a 
Film and TV composer 
Saxophonist, songwriter and producer Boney James called on Audio Perception this month for help in his personal studio. He was introduced to us by our friend, Grammy nominated engineer and producer Dave Rideau. ( Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Janet Jackson, Sting, George Duke, TLC, JLo, George Benson, Earth Wind and Fire) Boney needed to update some of the sound control panels in his studio. AP brought in four foot by two foot 
The Audio Perception store is now stocking the 
The end of February marks the opening of the 
Feb. 27th is the date to join Audio Perception at the Home Recording Boot Camp's Recording Fest 2011. Located in Los Angeles, Recording Fest is a one day Conference – Trade Show – Workshop – Panel event celebrating cool recordings, and the gear, people and techniques that make them. A gathering of people with a passion for making great records, and great music. Guests can check out new gear, learn from the masters and network with other people passionate about recording. The amazing guest panel of producers and engineers will include people like Dave Pensado (Pink, Shakira, Beyonce, Janet Jackson, LL Cool J) and Tony Shepperd, (Madonna, Queen Latifah, Elton John, Kenny Loggins). There will be a raffle with thousands of dollars in prizes, and a trade show with many booths from heavy hitters like Genelec, Neve and Audio Perception. The best part about it is 100% of ticket sales and all net proceeds from the raffle and sponsorship will go to support the recording program at Phoenix House, a program that uses recording and music to help young people recovering from drug addiction. See you there.
Audio Perception Post has been very busy lately. Two films we worked on last year are on the festival circuit. Anti-Samaritan Hotline is a short film written and directed by A. Tad Chamberlain. The film was mixed at APP's downtown Los Angeles 5.1 mix studio by Tad with assistance by David Knauer. The film has already won 2 awards. The first is the 2010 Shocker Award for Overall Excellence, the Shockfest Film Festival’s top award. ASH was nominated for three Shocker awards in total including Best Director. The other award was the CineKink Select Award for Creative Vision in a Short Film at the CineKink NYC Film Festival. ASH has also been shown at numerous other festivals including CineKink in Vegas, Portland and Los Angeles, D.C. and Chicago, and at the Fetsich Film Festival in Kiel, Germany. Another short film APP just completed in December, The Monstrosity, was already in the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and it's looks like it will be accepted into 2 or 3 more in the next few months. Check back here or at the Audio Perception Post web site for more info.
Audio perception attended the 129th annual AES convention in San Francisco this month. We spent 4 days meeting with people, making new contacts, and getting a first look at some great new products. We were also there to witness the release of the much anticipated Avid Pro Tools 9. Other hits of the 
show were SSL's AWS console/controller, the AWS 924 and 948, and also their desktop I/O and controller, the Nucleus. In addition to seeing all of the great new products at the show, we also connected with iZotope and will now include their complete line of software products in our studio/showroom. Our clients can come in and try the plugins before they decide to purchase. Having the software in house also expands AP's tech support and teaching possibilities by allowing us to offer better support and education for our clients who use iZotope's plugins.
Audio perception has joined up with GC Pro to become one of their System Integrator affiliates. This allows GC Pro and Guitar Center to sell AP's complete array of services directly to their customers. A GC Pro account manager can now group our install, tech, design or support services along side a client's equipment purchase to deliver a full service package. Take a look at our page on the GC Pro Installation web page by clicking "
Audio Perception was contacted by Kevin Becka (Mix Magazine/Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences) who is helping to put together a project for Esquire magazine in conjunction with Blue Microphones. Each year Esquire builds out a home or living space that is then used to raise money for charities. The house chosen for 2010 is a mansion in the Hollywood Hills overlooking Los Angeles. Last year, Esquire built out a penthouse in Manhattan and included a small recoding studio there. With the studio in New York being such a success, this year they decided to build out a room behind the main house as a complete recording studio, including a control room and vocal booth. Kevin has been working closely with Blue's Tyler Barth to design the room and coordinate all of the equipment. SSL is donating a Duality console, AVID is contributing an HD3 Pro Tools system with the new Avid interfaces, and Genelec is adding in speakers all working together to showcase recordings done with Blue's microphones. Audio Perception is donating it's time to integrate all the equipment and get the studio up and running. We'll be adding some updates here soon including more information and photos as the project unfolds. You can read more about the project by clicking "
Over the past few months we have had quite a few more placements in TV and film from Audio Perception's original music collection. Working with the Beyond Music library, we have 15 songs that they shop to movies and TV. Aside from the Capitol One and Travelosity commercial placed earlier this year, our song "
The AP crew was out at the Transcenders studio this month to help them get ready for the new TV season. Not only are they starting another season of "Gossip Girl" but they are also doing the new NBC show "Outsourced" and it looks they are taking a third show too. To prepare for the heavy work load, Audio Perception's Jason Atknson helped them complete the upgrade of their Studio C Pro Tools HD system, allowing the Transcenders to work on three Pro Tools systems at once. We also cleaned up the other two systems to ensure smooth sailing in the months to come.
Audio Perception's Engineering team was put to work again this month to assist 
AP's Jason Atkinson was at the engineering helm of Michelle Johnson's new audio book self-help CD, "Exercises for Spiritual Growth". When Michelle, who specializes in spiritual well being and alternative healing, decided to produce her first CD, she contacted Jason and they began the pre-production work and then did some test recordings for the initial script. Once Michelle had the script refined and ready to go, the recording sessions and subsequent editing sessions commenced, and were completed with a few weeks. If you 
This month we have another studio move on our hands. As TV and film composer David Baerwald was getting ready for a new season of the CW's series Life Unexpected, he decided to move his private studio to a new location that would better serve his needs. David is a multi-talented songwriter, producer, musician, TV/film composer, and even an artist himself. His credits range from Sheryl Crow, ABC's October Road, Waylon Jennings, and the Bangles front woman Susanna Hoffs, to country star LeeAnn Rimes and Luciano Pavarotti. Headed up by Audio Perception's Jason Atkinson, we sent in a team to design a plan for the new location and then oversee the equipment being moved. Next we added a new Apple Mac Pro running in 64bit mode, hosting Vienna Ensemble Pro, and updated all of his software on two computers. Last we got the two Macs talking to each other and sharing audio through the Apogee Symphony System. David was back up and running in just a few days and starting to score for the new season.
